Reaction to latest claims of Princess Diana murder: 'Nonsense'

Flowers and photographs are seen on gates near the front of Kensington Palace in London, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2011. (AP / Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The revelation that British police are investigating new information about the 1997 deaths of Princess Diana and her boyfriend has been met with skepticism and downright dismissal.

Scotland Yard said Saturday that officers from its specialist crime and operations unit will look at the new information, but refused to provide details.

According to reports in the British press, the latest allegations are that the British Army's elite special forces regiment was somehow involved in the car crash that killed Diana and Dodi Fayed in a Paris tunnel on Aug. 31, 1997.

According to The Telegraph, military sources say the allegations of the elite forces’ involvement are “utter nonsense.”

Ken Wharfe, Diana’s former bodyguard, also questioned why it took 16 years for the latest theory to surface and called it a “publicity stunt.”

Five years ago, a British jury ruled that the crash was caused by reckless speed and drinking by Diana and Fayed’s driver, Henri Paul. The jury also concluded that paparazzi were recklessly pursuing Diana’s vehicle that night.

In a lengthy Daily Beast piece, magazine editor and author of The Diana Chronicles, Tina Brown, slams the fresh allegations as a revival of “the old phantoms of conspiracy.”

Brown highlights the extensive investigation into Diana’s death and “incontrovertible toxicological evidence” that her driver was intoxicated and on medication at the time of the crash.

Some royal analysts say they’re not surprised that a new conspiracy theory has emerged.

“I'm in my 40s now, and as long as I've been alive, every four or five years there's been another documentary, another book about the assassination of John Kennedy," Mark Saunders told CNN. "And to some extent, Diana is rapidly becoming the new Kennedy. It's just continuous. It doesn't stop."

According to The Daily Mail, the family of Henri Paul welcomes the new probe, although Scotland Yard has stressed that it’s not re-opening its original investigation into the crash.

Paul’s mother told the paper she believes her son was “murdered” along with Diana and Fayed.